Chinese New Year, which is also known as Spring Festival, is the grandest festival in China, with a 7-day long holiday. As the most colorful annual event, the traditional celebration lasts about two weeks, and the climax arrives until the Lunar New Year’s Evening comes around. Massive banquets, red lanterns and loud fireworks are essential elements of the festival. Different from the universal New Year celebrated on January 1st, Chinese New Year is never on a fixed date. In 2019, this festival falls on February 5th. It is the Year of pig according to the Chinese zodiac, which features a 12-year cycle with each year represented by a specific animal. Having a reunion dinner, eating dumplings, exchanging red envelopes, setting off firecrackers and pasting Spring Festival couplets are the top 5 Chinese New Year activities which represent “Chinese characteristics”.

The colorful world of microbes is really gorgeous and amazing. If you don’t think microorganism are beautiful, think again. Microbe masterpieces are always exhibited in the Agar Art Contest of American Society for Microbiology every year. What do the painting “eating dumplings, setting off firecrackers and pasting Spring Festival couplets” have in common? Perhaps not much, but all of these images can be re-created by growing colorful microbes in ager or envisioning the pictures from microscope. During the Spring Festival approaching, our microbiologists proudly display our culture and heritage of Chinese New Year by microbial painting and wish everyone a happy new year (Figures 1,2).